Is this the end of The Labour Party?

Nota Bene

I am not a member of the Labour Party and never have been, but that fact has recently given me a perspective about the internal ‘reformation’ under the aegis of the present Labour ‘Leader – Ed Milliband MP. I have to confess that I find Ed Milliband unappealing as a prospective Prime Minister. He seems to have a largely ‘cardboard: cut-around-the-dotted-line’ kind of personality which translates badly into any potential Ministerial post. I am not impressed by him or his brother – David Milliband: a former Minister in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet.

I guess I just don’t care for the need for ‘personality’ driven Politics. I really do not like the ‘Big Brother’ or ‘X Factor’ kind of Policy making decisions that are made in the Labour Party either, and the lack of serious, adult, grown-up debate (even in the face of disagreement within the rank and file) makes me think that the Labour Party is simply becoming a ‘club’ for a different kind of ‘Politics.’ With the distinct (and some might say utterly dismaying) lurch to the Right and Centre-right of Political Ideology, I might propose that the true and foundational principles of “grassroots Socialism” within the Labour Party, are already long dead.

The retreat from Socialism.

Instead, there is a deepening and entrenched conceit about the concept of the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown “New Labour” movement. A conceit that is as erroneous as it is absurd! Little by little, the likes and dislikes of the upper echelon of the Labour Party hierarchy have picked apart the fabric of what was Left-Wing Ideology and Socialist Values, replacing it with a much ‘watered-down’ set of values and ideas. Gone are the forthright Political Advocates of the Socialist Manifestos. For now , in their place, newly installed like some rogue software which obliterates every reference, however tacet, to “Socialism” the ‘grey-men and women’ have appeared to drag the Party into the largely unoffensive, bland, mild and all-pleasing ‘centre’ of political thought. Every aspect of the Socialist identity of the Labour Party has been air-brushed out of existence. The ‘failure’ of Communism was equated with the failure of Socialism – yet this is a redundant notion, because not one of the Communist States had ‘Socialism’ at its heart. All of the Communist States were, ‘totalitarian.’ They were intended to become Socialist before they became Totalitarian under the likes of eg. Stalin, Chairman Mau and the thousand other despots that followed. The true Socialist identity, explored in Marx’s – Das Kapital never saw the light of day. Even the famed ‘Little Red Book’ which formed the framework and architecture of Chinese Communism only ever used Socialism as a ‘mantra’ with which to pursuade their ‘Comrades’ that they had the Country’s interests at heart. They too fell under the shadow of totalitarianism. The Socialist dream was lost long ago, driven out of existence by regime after regime. Further ‘demonized’ by America and Britain: Socialism has always and inevitably equated with Communism – even though the likes of Marx, Trotsky and Engels never envisaged the form their Ideological Manifesto would take in quite that way.

All the way through the McCarthy “witchhunts” where Americans from all walks of life were accused and denounced as ‘Communists’ – there was a firm, unyeilding and insolent belief that anyone who agreed with the ideas of Socialism had to be a Communist. The American Senate Committee on Communist Activities had no time for the niceties of discernment or ideological discrimination. The McCarthy period resulted in hundreds of thousands of Americans being ‘blacklisted’ for Jobs, Loans and Mortgages. Prominent Public Denouncements (where neighbours, friends and work colleagues were “encouraged” by Government Organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I) to give evidence against anyone they believed to be Communist or who had Communist sympathies. This became more wretched as wholly innocent people were accused before a Grand Jury: – unable to defend themselves from the prurience of the questions repeatedly asked and disallowed from being able to use any kind of Public Defenders: ) The accused included Hollywood Stars, Playwrights, Artists, Authors, Intellectuals, Scientists and even Military Staff. The phrase “Reds under the bed” became coined after several high profile trials for Treason were prosecuted. The American Government saw communist spies everywhere.

There has been a similar attitude in Britain. The fear of covert or secret communist organizations springing up under the guise of Socialist Union movements bordered on paranoid delusion. The members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were regarded as Communist sympathizers, because they were against the siting of American Nuclear Missile Bases in Britain. The campsite at Greenham Common USAF base, populated mainly by women and students was regularly watched and patrolled by MI5, American Intelligence and other Departments of the Police. However. It was during the Thatcher Government’s first term of Office that several self-styled ‘Socialist’ Parties and various branches of Labour Unions were infiltrated by members of MI5 and Special Branch – Undercover Division. At the height of the Miner’s Strikes, these infiltrators became ‘Agents Provocateurs’ stirring up strife within the rank and file of Miner’s Unions while simultaneously using ‘divide and rule’ – separating out those Miner’s who wanted to go back to work, from those who wished to perpetuate the strike. Even though the number of miner’s who wanted to break the strike was very small, the Government and National Coal Board used all their power to protect the returning Miners. Thatcher had used the Police as her Political Army and had also brought MI5 into disrepute by using its services against the Country’s Citizens. By the end of the strike, Thatcher had passed surveillance orders on all of the Union Leaders and most of the Members of the Opposition including Ex-Prime Minister Michael Foot MP

How we ended up with so many people on ‘Permanent’ Welfare (1988 – 2009)

It is important to understand too that, for several decades after the Miner’s Strike – and indeed the other strikes which took place throughout the United Kingdom – that an unknown number of Union Officials and their famiies were ‘blacklisted’ from any kind of employment. There are many families now who have lead a life of penury and impoverishment because of Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet and their involvement and collusion with the infamous Economic League of Great Britain: whose actions, prevented ordinary people from ever working.The anonymous faces behind this systemmatic illegality are generally believed to have disseminated their intentional disempowerments through the structure and membership of the Masonic Order. The Economic League of Great Britain protests that it ‘disbanded’ in 2009 and never blacklisted anyone (to their knowledge).. That still means that some people were somehow prevented from working (and therefore spent their entire lives on Benefits) Existing on State hand-outs for over twenty years.

It is well to note that not one former Minister from either Margaret Thatcher or John Major’s Government was ever accused or prosecuted for ‘blacklisting’ former Trades Union Members or the members of their Families. The ‘blacklists’ have either been destroyed or are kept under lock and key at Conservative Central Offices in London. Even the BBC was involved in the act of ‘blacklisting’ certain individuals and their families: though there is little evidence to support the accusation now.

The Break up of the U.S.S.R

On the 9th November 1989 the Berlin wall came down. Russian Communism was at an end. The break-up of the Soviet States and their fight for Independence from Russian control gathered momentum and soon resulted in the declaration of The Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia formally breaking away from the [now ‘former’] U.S.S.R

The Whitehouse soon announced that it was the “end of Socialism as a failed Political Ideology.’ The response from the UK echoed much the Americans said. The dawning of this new age sent the British Labour Party into a search for, or the need to find, it’s “identity” – now that Countries, Governments and Authorities, once branded as being ‘Socialist,’ had come to an undignified and chaotic end. I believe at this point in time, the Labour Party tried to distance itself from the past (especially the break-up of former Soviet unity) and tried to find new political ground to justify its existence..

The Reformation of The Party – New Labour is born..

The formation, or rather – one might argue, the “reformation” of the Labour Party under Tony Blair focused less on the core values or the intrinsically’ Socialist ideology’ of the Party and more on its presentation and public interaction. New Labour dispensed with most of the ‘idealism’ and concentrated more on ‘popularity.’ The 1997 New Labour Manifesto contained few of the core policies which many of the rank and file might have expected, and many of policies were deliberately designed to rid Labour of the “tax and spend” image they had been constantly associated with, throughout the Leadership years of Neil Kinnock (and the late John Smith MP QC.) Tony Blair benefitted greatly from the length of time it took for Labour to, once more, become a ‘credible’ and more importantly, ‘electable’ Political Party.

It was the Tabloids what Won it!

However, it should not be forgotten that much of the opposition to Labour becoming a Government, (even before the advent of Tony Blair) came from the Press: especially the Newspapers belonging to Rupert Murdoch. Through the editorials (especially the Front Pages, which seemed to be constantly ‘available’ for anti-Labour propaganda) of News International – and especially the Tabloids namely: The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express and the News of The World, in whose stead the Labour Party came under a continuous and increasingly hostile barrage of abuse and witheringly critical propaganda. The day after the Conservatives won a second term in office, the front page of The Sun boasted “It was US what won it!” The Empire of Rupert Murdoch had shown its power. Labour could find little solace in the fact that they had not ‘lost’ the Election – they had simply been kept from ever being considered for Government through the collusion and vitriolic anti-Labour propaganda of Tory Central Office with News International’s Chief Editors.

Re-branding the Labour Party was, perhaps, the single ‘master-stroke’ – yet even then, the Party was being financed and supported through the donations of Unions: some of whom had vested interests in some of the older policies finding their way into the present manifesto. Much of New Labour was still ‘Old Labour,’ : though the Party was no longer being controlled by the stalwarts. Tax and Spend Policies were outlawed, the Government would not make manifesto promises about policies it could not safely deliver in its first term of office. The New Labour Party stretched out their hands to much more Middle-Income/Middle-Class families: aiming most of their electoral policy directives at what was called the “aspiration generation” and not the usual lower paid, working class/unemployed or those on benefits. In many ways it might have been thought a slap-in-the-face for those in the Labour Party who were Working Class, but the promise of a New Labour Government meant there was always the hope that those who were passed over in the first instance would then gain through further policies and changes to existing manifesto pledges.

The Icy Winds of Disenfranchisement.. How the Unions were ignored.

If there was a desire for such things it was soon extinguished through introduced reforms and enactions which altered the lives of millions of unemployed and disabled/sick. It seemed that Labour would no longer look after the very people who built the Labour Party. Unions and their members also felt the cold chill of realisation that ran through them, blowing in from the now, Arctic Winds of the newly installed Labour Government. It must have beena shock to find that many of the Employment and Health Tribunal Laws they wanted to see reinforced were actually ignored, whereas more emphasis was paid to Part-Time Workers and their rights and entitlements. The Unions were left at the sidelines, struggling to understand the meaning of what was going on, and what it would mean to them. Every tenet of the Socialist Idea was overturned or watered down so thoroughly that it became hardly recognizable.

The Labour Party – New Labour was parting company with its fundamental principles and foundational membership. The Working Classes were deliberately marginalized while New labour set itself up as a ‘Centre-Left’ party, with occasional leanings towards Thatcherite Policies. There was no wholesale re-Nationalization of the Utilities, BT or the Railways. Those who expected any kind of Socialist u-turn were in for dissappointment. As far as Blair and the Cabinet were concerned, they had become effectively ‘divorced’ – not only from Socialist Ideology, but also responsibility for those on Welfare, the Unemployed (beyond the age of 30) and those involved in Manufacture or Heavy Industry. In effect, those people who were born before the Thatcher Yeras were immediately cut-off. They were, in New Labour’s eyes – “irrelevant.” Government efforts were centred upon Youth Unemployment, Working Mothers and Families. It has to be said that many improvements were made in the General Population. The introduction of a ‘Minimum Wage’ did not cause the Commercial ‘armageddon’ that the Tories had given dire warnings about. Child-subsidy was introduced to allow Women who wanted to work, to pay for, Day-Care and Creches. Welfare increases were tied to the Retail Price Index, which meant that benefits did not lag behind any adverse changes in the economy. Although the domestic economy was the main priority for Government, the International stage claimed far more time and, as a consequence, the Country’s economy was always in the shadow of International Affairs. The War in Iraq, the “Dodgy Dossier,” and the untimely death of the Government’s Chemical Weapons Inspector – Dr David Kelly, did more damage to the Prime Minister than anyone in New Labour might have guessed. It was clear during the Inquiry into The War in Iraq, that Tony Blair had become a liability as Prime Minister. Wrangling over when He would finally step down, handing the Premiership to his Deputy Gordon Brown damaged the image of Government and the Party to such an extent that the Country seemed unwilling to allow Gordon Brown to simply ‘take over’ the role of Prime Minister.

The Economy Collapses

In 2008 the United States, the European Union and Britain were plunged into the worst economic crises since the twenties Great Depression or the Hyperinflation of the nineteen thirties. At first, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Fanny-Mae was blamed solely on the sub-prime mortgage lenders market, which overnight had gone bust. The backlash was immediate and catastrophic. Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Insurers of London and a substantial clutch of other banks who were all tied into the International Money Markets, suddenly felt the ground move from under their collective and individual feet, they needed an immediate and vast taxpayer bail-out, which virtually emptied the Government’s coffers. Gordon Brown was in the eye of the storm and while his European neighbours suddenly found themselves almost bankrupted overnight – he issued the release of funds to bail out all the Banks thus far affected. The Stock Exchanges went into free fall as billions were wiped from share values. Some European Union countries were so badly affected they found themselves floundering, tied to massive debts and unable to respond to the crises. Iceland, owing (among others) the UK millions of pounds simply shut its doors. Their Lanski Banksi stopped trading immediately and refused to make arrangements to pay their massive debts. Portugal, Ireland (Eire) Greece and Spain found themselves staring into an economic abyss: worse still, their debt was not going to be measured in mere billions of Euros, but in fractions of their Gross Domestic Product. The Euro itself was in peril and fluctuating, but downward depressed markets and the instant devaluation of the Euro were anything but helpful contributing factors. The European Central Bank struggled to take in the enormity of the crises, while Germany and France tried in vain to reassure the markets and global economies. Many of the beneficial and transformative policies and measures Gordon Brown took to lessen the impact of the crises have been long forgotten – drowned out by the political posturing and rhetoric of the [then] opposition Conservative and Liberal Democratic Parties. Yet it is true to say that, had Gordon Brown not acted as quickly and robustly as he did, shoring-up the failing banks, the economic crises in Britain could have become runaway bankruptcy and catastrophic economic damage which would have taken much, much longer to stabilize.

The Entirely Fascist Coalition: Labour moves to the Centre Right…

However. In a short period of time Gordon Brown lost the support of the electorate and an election was called. With no overall majority for any of the main parties a “Coalition” was formed between the Conservatives and Lib-Dems. The Labour party shrank into a leadership contest where both ex-Minister David Milliband (an MP in the Cabinet of Gordon Brown) and his largely unknown brother Ed Milliband, fought for the Labour Party’s supremacy. The selection of Ed Milliband as Labour Leader was a mere sideshow to the increasing pantomime that was the beginning of both ‘Austerity Measures’ (in certain cases, including the imposition of “caretaker Governments” ) and the ‘European Bailouts:’ which, for countries like Greece and Spain would mean the difference between ‘coping’ and National Bankruptcy. Even when the Labour Party had managed to form an ‘Opposition’ – ready to take on the newly formed Coalition Government, they were still deadlocked about which parts of the electorate they would ‘actively’ support. In the following months, and in view of the depth and savagery of the imposed Welfare Cuts (made under the guise of austerity) it was not going to be those at the bottom rung of the social dependency ladder. The Labour Party had sold itself for the promise of electoral tolerance. Ed Milliband soon revealed that He and His Labour Party would not be in the business of “protecting the most vulnerable.” His eyes are firmly on the Middle Classes and He has even made a disgraceful distinction between those He and his Party believe are ‘Deserving’ and ‘Undeserving.’ Choosing to follow the Coalition mantras, and, in one movement has lurched the whole of the Labour Party into the Centre Right of the Political Spectrum.

As such, we are, today, in the hands of an entirely Fascist Government – Incredibly, being opposed by Fascists and supported through the politics of intolerance and State and Press-led revenge against … who?

Those who are actually responsible for the Economic Collapse?

No.

But Victims all the same….

So..?

Is the Labour Party dead?

Is it the end of the Labour Party?

YES.

And when there is no effective opposition to Draconian Policies and Government.. it can only lead to disaster!